Chapter 9 "Heroism and Horror" Summary and Analysis

On a normal weekday, the seven buildings of the World Trade Center complex (WTC) were populated by approximately 50,000 workers with an additional 40,000 going through the complex's concourse.

The September 11, 2001, attack was not the first against the WTC. Muslim terrorists attacked the complex with a truck bomb on February 26, 1993. During this attack, heavy smoke filled several stairways, and several people were rescued by helicopter from one of the tower roofs. The memory of this rooftop rescue left many people who were in the towers on 9/11 with the mistaken impression that rooftop rescues were part of the WTC evacuation plan. In fact, this was not the case and on 9/11, doors leading to the roofs were locked.

Following the 1993 attack, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) made substantial structural and technological changes...